Written and directed by Barr in collaboration with filmmaker James Benning, O Panama features Oscar-nominated actor Willem Dafoe as a man confined to his apartment on a winter day as he suffers through an illness. Built on the polarity between hot and cold, the tedious reality of the man's sickness and the vivid hallucinatory visions of his delirium, O Panama conveys the workings of the subconscious. Without relying on dialogue or action, Barr portrays a "mental landscape... rife with heat and color." The contrast between the bleak urban winterscape and the vibrancy of Dafoe's imagination fuels the dramatic progression.